The shadow war
by Dragonice0
Summary: A gifted shadower named Ice is dragged into a war between classes. He'll need to learn fast, and react even faster, if he ever wants to end the war that could tear apart victoria. Let's just hope he survives.
1. The start

Well hello, anyone that actually decided to click on this story. I've read plenty of stories on this site, including revolt of the archers. Of course, I'm not looking to outdo any real gems here, but I'm hoping to provide you with a decent story. It's not going to be short, so be warned about that. This is my first story, so please, review. If I get enough reviews, I'll let the next chapters out a bit faster. I am holding them ransom, only you can save them, dear reader.

Just kidding, but I will let them out faster if you review more. So please, reviews for the noob? :D Time to start the story

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"I have to go to a meeting, more business stuff. Don't burn down the town while I'm gone." The Dark Lord said, and he slipped out the secret entrance of our society under Kerning City. I watched him leave the building below.

I looked around the room, it was a brick-made room, with metal supports built into the wall. There was a large window over Kerning city, about 6 floors up from ground level. On the wall just to its left, was a mass of computers screens. The right had wooden boards with targets painted on them, with a few knives stuck into a few of them. Almost every single one knife or star had hit the bulls eye. The center of the room had a few couches, one which I was laying upon, with a few other direct students of the Dark Lord. Behind was just another wall, with two doors. One led down, the other led to the roof. The floor and ceiling were a shiny metal. It was a tough looking room, I guess.

It was built for us, the gifted students that attained the rank of shadower right from the beginning. Usually in our society, you started small. You became an assassin or a bandit, then continued to a hermit or a chief bandit. Finally you reach the rank of night lord or shadower. The only difference was in weapons, claws and stars versus daggers and sometimes shields. However, our group was different. We were so gifted we could learn multiple ways of fighting with ease. You couldn't really put a name on our fighting style, we just learned what we thought was best. Sure, the normal way everyone took was carefully tested to be easy and powerful, and convenient as well. Not us, we had our own style.

I looked out the window for a while, a small breeze came through the door, pushing my blue hair to the side. Yeah, I have hair that can't really be described as light or dark, it was right in the middle of blue. It reflected light really well, for some reason. Shut up, I don't color it, it grows like this. Not my fault.

Mike threw a shuriken lazily at a target, cutting one of the ropes it was hanging by. One side dropped, it and it swung back and forth. Without another thought, he threw another, catching the bulls eye easily. I picked up a knife, and threw it from a slightly higher angle. It caught the shuriken directly in the hole placed in the center, and stuck it to the board, while dislodging the throwing star's sharp side from the wood.

"I'm so bored…" Mike said, laying his head back on the black leather couch and closing his eyes. His dark hair blended right in with the leather couch.

"You're always bored Mike." Said Jess, a girl who was also under the Dark Lord. She was drawing something again. She had a blue pen in her hand, I reasoned she could be drawing me.

"He isn't bored when he's eating." I said, chuckling. I sighed, looking outside again. The dusty skies greeted me with a single ray of sunshine, one that I was glad for. It moved, and faded fast. I almost frowned.

"I wish something would happen already…" Mike said, who hadn't moved at all. He stared at the ceiling, as if he could make it explode if he concentrated hard enough. He probably could have, with his magical abilities.

"I'm not going to wait for something to happen," I said. I got up, and walked over to the door, attaching my shuriken holder to my jeans, and straightening my blue shirt a bit.

"Where are you going, Ice?" Jess said, looking at me. Her brown hair turned, and shined in the sun coming in from the window.

"To get some fresh air." I said, turning and walking up the stairs.

On the roof, it was fairly warm. I walked out, and looked over the city I called home. Maybe one day I would find out who had abandoned me. They might still be in the city, but I had no way to tell for sure. I walked over to the edge of the roof, looking down 7 floors to the ground. People bustled back and forth, business suits, dresses, all a hopeless mess of dots moving in all directions. I looked up, and saw the building that was being built across the street from mine. It looked to be another office building. How boring. I was hoping it would be something interesting, something that would change from day to day. A court house would have worked, with a big window. I could see the different people sitting there, at least. My mind wandered.

I thought about my name, Ice, for a while. It was a very strange name to have, but it explained how my personality used to be. Never knowing my true name, my friends had given me a list of names they thought of. Leave it to Mike to put Ice at the very bottom. He said it was because of my hair, and I must admit, it was a unique name, so I took it.

I looked down on the building I lived in. It was the thief society, a building created by the Dark Lord to be a secret headquarters for all thieves. Though it was a new idea, he was sure we could someday use it for everyone. A place to train, to trade, to get a few drinks, share tips, it sounded really nice. I could go down there and help advise a few of the newer people, it seemed like life was going to get much better soon.

I jumped up towards a tower crane, walking along it before settling down right above the crane's cabin, watching the people move back and forth, assembling and building different parts of the steel structure that would hold the office building of horrible boredem up. I got up and jumped again, fading in and out of sight between buildings. I landed near a gap between to buildings close together, hearing a wail. I looked down and saw a women getting attacked by some mugger. He had a knife. I was about to jump down, when I looked around. I jumped across the small gap, and kicked a concrete block off the edge. It fell about 3 or 4 floors before it hit the man's head, and it fell to the side. He fell on his knees, and he clutched his head, in pain, before collapsing on the ground. The women looked up at me, then quickly ran from the mugger. I wondered if the mugger was dead, but then I thought that it didn't really matter. If he was dead, too bad for him. If he wasn't, he might learn his lesson. I continued my running without another thought about him.

I jumped up and up as the buildings that grew taller and taller, as I reached the financial district. I looked down, realizing I was more then 20 stories up. I looked over the city that I knew as home. The red, dusty skies, were trying to show me something wonderful, but couldn't because of the all the stuff the was pumped through the factories. I decided to go back and eat something, maybe take a nap, or play a board game. Yeah, a board game, I was that desperate for something to do. Monopoly was fun enough, trying to steal the fake money while no one else was looking. Who said we couldn't add our own little touch to a game?

I jumped a 30 foot gap between 2 buildings put right next to each other. I was at the coast again, and the dust and smog was clearing for a second. The flaring red sky was wonderful, while it lasted, but I knew this was my home. No other place could replace it. I was about to head back, when a noise came from behind me. I turned around to find Jack, the fourth guy from our group sitting on the guard rail of the building.

Jack was hot-headed, and sometimes let his emotions take over him. This wasn't always good for our way of fighting, which could be very unforgiving to his type. He managed though, and I had a small respect for that. It was nothing compared to Jess though, with _her _condition. Jack and I were sort of rivals, but we were somewhat friends as well. There weren't many other people I had time to be friends with. He drank from a bottle of water, and let out a large breath.

"There's been nothing to do _all day_." He complained.

"Yeah. I'm bored as well." I said. "Dark Lord is out again, he shouldn't be gone for more then 2 days. It's almost dinner time, we should head back." I said.

"He's always leaving these days, how bad can the relationship between the classes be? Anyway, I'm not that hungry right now. How about a quick spar before we head back? It'll give us something to do." He said. I took out my dagger, which was enough of an answer for him.

He jumped forward, grinning already. I readied some throwing stars in my other hand, and he took out his dagger. I forced mana into my foot, and launched forward, and used dark sight to cloak myself at the same time. This resulted in a step that was impossible to detect before and after the jump, even the best mana trackers would lose sight of me until they saw me with their own eyes. It could even fool the feeling you get when someone is behind you, the only way to see me after the jump was with the naked eye. I had somehow managed to reverse the effect of darksight, in a good way, as long as I was out of plain sight.

I called this shadow step, and it was one of my favorite skills, an original design.

I stepped behind him, and swung quickly. He was trained, and jumped away, knowing that if he didn't see me, I was behind him. Lots of fights with this technique had at least taught him that. I took a star out of a pocket and threw it quickly. He landed and raised his dagger, deflecting the shuriken. I took out a few more, and threw them as well. He side stepped, and dashed towards me, jumping over me quickly. I took a tool out of my pocket, and turned around and deflected a stab with a sweep of my right arm. His other hand was coming at me with his dagger, and I focused mana into my left fist, turning it to electricity, and grabbed his arm, shocking him. He jumped back before he took any real damage, and I focused my mana again.

3 thin shards of ice, two inches in diameter and one foot long, formed behind me and launched. Jack barely had time to dodge them, and I shadow stepped behind him. I kicked him in the side quickly. Most of the strength in my body was in my legs, they caused real damage. He grunted in pain as it hit, and quickly stuck his feet against the ground, while grabbed my dagger arm to keep it away, and also to keep me in range. He rammed his back into me with all his might. I fell back a few steps.

A cell phone went off. I picked up mine. Jess's voice flooded my ears, and I turned it to speaker phone for Jack.

"Ice! Come back here. We got some packages, and we are waiting for you to come open them!"

I replied I would be there in a minute, and closed the phone. Jack looked up.

"That was fun. I guess you got to go, huh?" He said, taking another drink for his water bottle.

"You're coming too, aren't you? Oh, and, yeah. I hope this package isn't a bomb. Remember April's fools day last year?" I said

"Don't…remind me…" He said, his head down. We both started running home on the roof tops. It only took a few minutes to get back.

"Come on!" Jess shouted when we came into the room. On the table were a few packages, addressed to each of us. They looked white and plain.

"The package delivery guy says he was a few minutes earlier then he was supposed to be, that set off some alarms. Stay alert." Mike said.

I plopped down, and looked around for anything that didn't look right. When I was satisfied, I checked the date on the calendar to make sure it was not April's fools. I opened the package. Inside, was a classic present box, silver with a blue ribbon on top. Then I remembered.

"I totally forgot dude!" Mike said.

"So did I! How did I forget?" Jess said, holding her hands to her hand.

"What? What is it?" Jack asked. Three pairs of eyes flashed to him, giving that dull look that could only say, 'seriously?'

"Dude, don't you remember? Last year, the Dark Lord was listening as we talked, we said because we didn't know our birthdays, we wouldn't ever celebrate one among our group. He went out and bought as all presents, and said that at least today, we could celebrate for whenever our birthdays would have been. Today is our birthday, as far as we know." Jess said.

"Oh. Oh! I forgot about that, yeah, whatever. Let's open them already." Jack said, apparently not listening anymore. I got back to opening mine, carefully taking it apart. There was a smaller box inside, really small, maybe a necklace? I opened it up.

Inside were a pair of blue glasses, with a black frame. I put them on, and realized it was actually a computer screen. It quickly explained itself as the smart-sight, a wearable super computer with tons of features, directed by mana alone.

"This… is awesome… I'm getting maps on my glasses." Jack said. I looked over onto the couches, and using my mana to tell the glasses what to do, I found I could additionally scan objects and find wikipedia-like entries over everything I looked. I looked past the computer screen, and it automatically faded away, not getting in my way at all. Everything was slightly bluer, but it was quite clear. The others got the same glasses in different colors. Jack got a red one, Mike got a black one, and Jess got a green one. We looked around the room in wonder. I noticed one more package.

"It says it's for you," Jess said. I picked it up. Inside was a amazing necklace. It was a cross shaped design, with a silver base. The silver held sparkling sapphires, covering up most of the silver from the front. Everyone was impressed. I looked at it with my glasses, and a entry came up. I sat down to read it, and told everyone else to scan it was well.

**Scanning… Object identified. Subject: Sapphire moon cross. Function: weapon.**

**Displaying information….**

**Sapphire moon cross:**

**This is a very strange, yet extremely powerful weapon. Found all over the world, starting as a moon cross. This moon cross is the sealed form of itself, it is able to change shape. It can turn into many different types of weapons, although it will always be easier to form faster weapons. A spirit inside the blade can allow it to change to whatever the owner needs.**

**As the owner of the blade gets stronger, the blade will grow with it. It will reach a colored weapon, such as a red moon cross. With enough work, a gem weapon is also possible, such as a sapphire moon cross. As it grows, it will get sharper and sharper, until the final gem weapon turns it into the sharpest blade in the entire world.**

**The different colors and gems that a moon cross will grow into are dependant on what elemental affinity the owner has. Blue/sapphire represents ice or lightning, or both. Red/ruby will represent fire, green/emerald (rarest type) will represent earth. Multi-color/Opal will represents all elements equally, black/onyx represents darkness. White/diamond will represent holy. **

**Solar crosses are the brothers and sisters of moon crosses, and are slower then moon crosses. They aren't sharper then moon crosses, rather they usually have a special power, depending on what color/gem the weapon is. Some elements will cancel any sort of magical barriers, making them impossible to block, some will be extremely slow and easy to block, but will automatically kill anything they cut.**

I looked past the glasses at the cross again. The others were looking at it as well. This little piece of jewelry was supposed to turn into the sharpest blade in the world?

"Why does he get one and not us?" Jack said in a moaning voice. There was a letter on the box it came with.

"A gift from the Ellinia university, we hope you would come study magic, the school could use a prodigy like yourself." It read. A little note was made on the side, explained how the dark lord had personally gone up to the university to recommend me.

"You're gonna study magic!" Mike said. "Though you know plenty already, don't you?"

"No, the dark lord said I've only got potential. I'm not skilled with it, I haven't found a way to make it fit my style. I'll be learning it soon, anyway." I said.

"Yeah, no one really cares about that. So you can throw a few ice spikes. Big deal!" Jack said. He tried to use the same technique I did, only to cause a small explosion of mana. A small dent formed in the wall where jack had been thrown against. I looked back at the paper. Why did I feel like I would be in Ellinia in a few hours, and I wouldn't like it at all?

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Well then, hope you liked this chapter. Please, as I said earlier, review. I want to become a better writer. See any mistakes? Review. Think it's interesting? Review. Want to see more chapters? You can probably guess what you need to do. Hope you come back for more! 3325 words.


	2. Death

Well, here's the 2nd chapter of shadow war. As always, review.

Characters: As I find it difficult to remember the characters from a story I just picked up, I will list a few characters and the basic personality that I was aiming to give them.

Mike: He's a bored teenager. When there is something interesting, he'll be the first to jump up and give himself something to do. He has dark hair, and his main hobby is sleeping and eating. He can summon a lot of raw strength when he needs to, and his main element is anything related to the darkness and shadows. His darksight is the strongest, and he often carries around explosives, his favorite weapon.

Jess: She's a girl with brown hair. Years of only having 3 boys as friends has sort of changed her. She's tough, and won't cry, but she is the kindest of the group. Her element is the wind, a very difficult element. She has trouble learning it, as there are not many to advise her on it. She currently likes both Ice and Mike, but apparently doesn't like the fact that Mike is somewhat lazy, and tries to deny to herself that she likes him at all.

Jack: Somewhat hot-headed, and lets his emotions show quite easily, which isn't always helpful in a battle. Still, a pretty powerful shadower, and his fire magic is the most powerful in the group. Too bad it often explodes in his face, he'll need more training to get the hang of it. He is a loyal friend though. He's got a crush on Jess, but apparently Jess doesn't return the feelings at all.

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I walked outside. My cross dangled from the arm, and I focused a little mana into it as I brought my arm up. It glowed, and several dark metal pieces, long and thin like snakes, curled around my wrist, making some sort of guard. It was curved, and the black metal shined. It was adorned in sapphires, and it was symmetrical. A small compartment formed above my wrist, and a blade popped out. It was black like the metal, and extended past my fingers. The center of the blade had glowing sapphires on it. I liked the design.

I quickly found I could make it retract back into the compartment with mana if I needed. I slashed at a broken support pillar, and it cut directly through the steel. Sharpest blade… I'd have to be careful. I tried to change its shape, but it didn't do anything, no matter how I formed my mana. I would figure that out later, apparently. I had a little bit more fun slashing apart whatever I could find, then I decided to head back.

Upstairs, I walked in, and everyone was doing one thing or another. They were checking computers, looking outside, or writing on papers. It was almost chaos.

"What happened?" I asked.

"Council said they had bad news." Mike said. I realized he the only person sitting down, actually using his glasses to do anything. An image on the thief council appeared on the screen, and on my glasses as well. These guys were the 2nd government, whenever the Dark Lord was away or sick. They wore blue robes and hid thier faces, to make sure they wouldn't ever be chased down for decisions that they made. Even if you knew who was in the council, you couldn't tell who voted for what. The robes had many magical seals put on them, one would change voices, another would make it impossible for you to see thier faces clearly. I didn't know much more about them. The council was silent for a few moments.

"The Dark lord has been murdered." A council member said. The news shocked me. How was this possible? We always thought the Dark Lord was almost impossible to beat, years of training against him had taught us that, at least. I thought about all those years of training. He was like a father to us, he was the only one who ever took us in. After years of teaching, he was suddenly gone now? Who could have done it? I suddenly felt a great amount of rage, but I quelled it. Anger would not help.

"When? How? Why!" Jack was going crazy. Mike was silent, he was probably trying to think about what could have happened. Jess was frozen a hand on her forehead and a single tear falling from her eye, she apparently didn't know what to think.

"Some sort of land-mine, then an arrow through his heart, we don't know anything else. No idea who the killer is, or anything else. We've contacted Ellinia, but for some reason the other towns are not responding to mana calls. We are afraid of what might happen if we send anyone to those towns, and we have ordered our thieves to come back ASAP." The council replied. "By the way, the Dark Lord was carrying a birthday cake, do you know anything about that?"

"No." Mike said. We all knew what it was for, but Mike knew it was only a waste of time to explain.

"What is Ellinia doing right now?" I asked.

"Why are we still in contact with these brats?" One council member demanded. He was ignored.

"Their leader has been assassinated as well, by sword. We're sending any thieves that can't get to Kerning city to head over to Ellinia. We're telling any thieves abroad to hide themselves for right now." Another said. Suddenly, I heard a door bursting open, and a man appeared in the background of the council room. He was breathing heavily, both hands on his knees.

"What is the meaning of your disturbance?" One council member asked.

"There is a huge army...coming from Perion! They are heading right for our city!" He said between breaths.

"Perion is attacking? First Dark Lord, now this!" I heard a council member cry.

"Yeah, this isn't good." Mike said. He was actually sounding worried.

"We need to do something, soon." I said

"I don't know about you guys, but I'm going to fight them. I'm not going to let these noobs to destroy my city!" Jack said, standing up. I tripped him, and Mike binded him to the wall with some dark magic spell.

"In all seriousness, what should we do?" I asked.

"We don't know yet." The council said.

"We can stay and fight, or retreat. Those are the only two options we have." A council member said. "I'm all for retreating, we have a harbor full of boats, we have enough for all the thieves, and I doubt that this army will attack citizens."

"We won't have enough time for the second option, we need a few people to stay back and fight." Mike said.

"We'll deal with that. We've sent the order for retreat, you guys and a few other thieves will, for now, go hold off the army as long as you can, and when you get a message, you'll retreat back to the boats to leave," The front council member said.

"Let's go then." Jack said, his face darkening. "I'll kill them."

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Well, this has been a short chapter. There wasn't much action, so I'll release the next chapter as soon as possible, within the next 24 hours. As this is my first story, I usually read over anything I release 5 times, to get rid of any errors and to make small changes. Quality is often better then quantity, is it not? Tell me if you see any mistakes, please. Also, as always, review if you can.


	3. The attack

Hey all. Hope you enjoy this chapter, this is where the action starts. It's pretty much completely action. That makes up for the last chapter, which had none. Read and review, please. Tell me if you spot and errors.

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We ran up to the rooftop. Already, I could see the army reaching the edge of the city. We were outnumbered, but we were in better positions. I froze the water in the air around me, and formed shuriken. I took them in my left hand, and started throwing quickly with my right. The others threw whatever stars or knives they had. Not many had an effect, the warriors wore heavy armor, and deflected most with shields or helmets. A few archers in the back line fell, but more archers rushed in to replace them. Jack had already gone down to the street to fight them head on, like the idiot he was.

We were half a mile away, aiming was not a priority at the moment. With a huge target at this range, 'spray and pray' was all we could really do, but at least we aimed for the archers. I started jumping across the roof tops. Then I saw a shift in the army. It looked like they had changed color, and I saw hundreds of bows pointing up at me, and other parts of the city. They all fired, some containing multiple shots, some of them were firing arrows infused with mana. I shadow stepped forward, out of the area they were shooting at. Arrows still fell around me, I looked back to see Jess and Mike following me, barely dodging the arrows. I side stepped an arrow, and soon I was on a building right in front of the army. More arrows were shot, and the building rumbled with explosions.

"I don't like these arrows. Let's get rid of their eyesight." I said. I took out a handful of smoke bombs, and threw them over the army with heavy throws. 5 smoke clouds hit the ground, and nearly a third of the army was blinded. Jess and Mike understood, and they threw a few as well. The entire army was under the effects. I noticed, however, my glasses gave me outlines of people. I looked over them, and saw that the smoke was too dense to be seen through, except for the occasional body part. It was very difficult to make out anything without the glasses.

"These glasses can see better than some archers!" I said, adjusting them and grinning. The glasses read some data out, showing the density of the smoke. It even told me one smoke cloud had contained poison.

"Awesome, I can even see how well my experimental poison smoke bomb is working!" Jess said.

"So you're behind that? Pretty sweet." I said. I noticed some of the smoke was being pushed by the wind. "They won't last much longer. I hope that the others have at least got some progress, we can't hold them off forever."

"I'll try to nullify the wind, but at this scale, I can't do much." Jess said.

Just then, a door behind us burst open. A warrior with a large 2-handed sword came out, he was wearing heavy armor and he looked pretty strong. I shadow stepped behind him, and released my dagger. I swung around and he barely had time to lift his sword. However, my dagger cut straight through his, and put a huge cut directly through his armor on his shoulder. The area appeared to redden. I took a step back. Fighting with this weapon was different, trying to block a sword attack and cutting it in two, one part possibly falling onto you.

He fell back from his wound, and saw his sword. He dropped it, and tried to run, but he saw Jess and Mike behind him. He took out an axe, and charged Jess. Jess side-stepped his swing, and the axe struck the floor. She stepped behind the warrior quickly and formed a dense ball of air, and blasted him in the back. He flipped forward, landing on his back. He tried to get up, taking a grip onto the rail that guarded against falling off the building. With one swift movement, Mike lifted the warrior and flipped him over the rail. The warrior screamed for 10 floors before landing on the ground with a heavy crash. I looked over and realized the smoke was wearing off quickly.

A shadow jumped up, and landed in front of us, directly on the rail. A lean warrior wearing cloth and a straw hat. He pulled out a one handed sword, long and thin with no guard. He swung quickly, and I leaned left and right to dodge his hits. Realizing my advantage, and raised my dagger to guard, and he swung against it. The blades touched, and the top of his fell to the ground. He looked shocked, and fell back a few steps. I gave the moon cross more energy, and it transformed once again.

This time, it turned into a copy of the warrior's that I was fighting, except instead, it kept the dark color and sapphires adorning the inside, and it seemed just as sharp as the dagger. I stabbed the warrior in the chest before he could react, then cut his throat and kicked him off the building. I took note of the speed of the blade, but turned it back to my dagger. Now was not the time to try out a weapon you have never used.

Meanwhile, the army was moving in. I looked over the side of the building and saw them pouring down the street next to us. It was the largest street in Kerning city, and one of the only entrances from this side of the city. Many thieves and even the occasional mage were fighting to keep them back. They were retreating as they fought, unable to deal with sheer numbers. The front line warriors held powerful shields, guarding against attacks as the advanced, arrows and stars flying everywhere.

I focused my mana, as much as I could. I drained the heat from the area, and froze all water around me. I turned it into one huge boulder of ice. I dropped it side of the street, catching many solders under it. I instantly felt like a huge portion of my mana was gone. I tried once more, and this time aimed for the other side of the street. The attackers were forced through a narrower way, making it easier for our forces to fight them off. I felt like I had been running for half a day, my arms and legs cramped already. I focused energy into both pillars of ice, and made a huge spark of electricity jump from them. This spark jumped through multiple warriors, blasting right through their metal armor. Many fell to the ground instantly, others were injured. I fell on one knee, unable to take much further strain, and decided that would be it for my magic attacks. I drank a potion, and felt a slight recovery, I'd need to conserve from now on.

An arrow almost hit me in the foot, tearing right through the concrete floor, a powerful iron arrow I guessed. I looked up to see a crossbowman of some kind, probably a sniper, looking at me. He saw Jess, who was occupied by a fight with a few warriors who had come through the rooftop. The crossbowman formed a few arrows out of mana, and fired at her. The arrows flew silently through the air as they approached Jess. I threw a few quick stars, and deflected them out of the air. Jess noticed this, but could pay no attention as she was forced to dodge around a warrior's heavy blue pole-arm strike. She was gone in a flash, cutting through a weak point in the warrior's armor while darting past him, and started focusing on the next one. Mike was actually matching a warrior's strength, and surprised him with a slash across his eyes. The warrior cried out, and swung blindly, hitting Mike on the side of the head with a heavy blunt weapon.

"We can't take this much longer!" Mike said. His dark barrier had saved him, but he was fading fast. His body shined gold as he sped himself for a moment, passing the warrior twice and slashing him to pieces. I threw a few stars at the crossbowman in the other skyscraper. He ducked behind a metal pillar, then started walked sideways and firing at the same time. I ducked under a double shot, then rolled around a burst of 4 arrows. I threw more stars, but he was already behind another pillar. What an annoying person. He appeared and fired some sort of arrow of ice at me. It went upwards, then exploded and sharp shards of ice fell at me. I jumped back a step, and looked behind me. I did a quick back flip over a warrior behind me as he tried to cut me in half. As he swung, one of the ice shard hit his weapon, pinning it to the ground, and he struggled to free it. I punched him in the back, feeling the dagger going right through his armor and into his heart. It was just then I received a text message on my glasses. I opened it quickly.

**"Time to go."**

"Let's go!" I said, as Jess and Mike nodded. We started jumping across rooftops, as arrows struck the ground behind us. Nearby buildings had been taken over by snipers and rangers. I jumped over an arrow that tore a gap in the concrete I was standing on. I threw a few stars at some of the enemies, but there were too many to focus on. I looked down to see our troops retreating as well. Jess threw another smoke bomb at the attackers, I could see it was a poison type. I saw a few warriors stumbling and falling. An arrow nearly took out my head, and three of them ripped into the side of my stomach. I took out a bottle of some oil-like substance, and quickly put a few drops on the wound to prevent poisoning or infection.

We were soon out of the range of the archers, and they couldn't catch up with us. Our troops were getting away as well, thanks to a few well-placed smoke bombs. I could see them blocks down the street, charging after us, tearing up citizens in the way. Most of the people, thankfully, got out of the street. I looked ahead a block, and saw a skyway, metal and glass.

"We won't be able to get all the troops on the ship before the warriors and archers reach us. Anyone got explosives?" I asked.

"I've got some." Mark said. He took out a grenade-like object. We stopped, and waited for our troops to pass.

"How long is the fuse?" I asked.

"5 seconds." He said. I pulled the pin on 2 of the explosives, timed them, and threw one at each of supports on both sides of the skyway. I could feel the shockwave pass me as the sound of the explosion ripped through the air. It fell straight down, scraping the sides of both buildings as it passed, breaking the glass on every floor before coming to a huge crash at the bottom of the street, blocking the whole road. The warriors could easily break through the glass, but they would be forced to hop into the window, and then out on the other side, and that should slow them down for a while.

"Perfect! Let's go." I said. We continued running, and started running again, jumping a gap between 2 buildings. I jumped down, grabbed a fire escape ladder, and held on as it slid down. It stopped just before the ground, and I jumped off, and kept moving. Mike and Jess landed next to me, having taken different routes down.

"Where is Jack?" Mike asked.

"Who cares?" Jess said. She really didn't like him, then, I noted.

"He's over there." I said, pointing at a perpendicular street. He came running down, and ended up next to us. He had a terrible gash over his eye, and his arm seemed to be bleeding quickly. I noticed warriors coming from the streets that we crossed, they had spread out once they came into the city, and were slowly heading towards the docks. Mike handed us all the explosives he had, about 10 grenades for each us. Jess wasted no time, she sent them flying with her wind abilities, taking out targets that I couldn't even see. Jack only took them because they were more reliable then his fire magic.

We reached the port quickly, running through the gates. Cargo containers were everywhere, and a direct path to the ships could be seen. Most of the huge oil rigs had left with the thieves onboard, only one was left for the ones that had stayed behind to delay the army. It was ready to leave, people were streaming on as fast as they could. I turned and saw what seemed like hundreds of warriors charging, although quite distant, they were going to reach us in less then 20 seconds at their pace. Everyone who needed to leave had already gotten past the containers.

"Block them!" I shouted, and threw a grenade into a small gap between a few containers, stacked up 4 floors high. The explosion pushed a few containers into the path, one spilled open furniture. More explosions came a few seconds later, and soon the only path into the port was blocked by a mess of bent and broken containers. Jack used a few fires arrows to set the contents of them aflame, providing an extra barrier. I looked back for a second, and saw that only a very small crowd of people still needed to get on.

I paid for not being careful, and an arrow flew through the fire, striking my shoulder. The metal was extremely hot, I quickly pulled it out, and blood started flowing. I turned back to the fire to see it rapidly being put out by snipers, using ice attacks to put it out. We got onto the ship as the last thief did, simply jumping onto the deck. The ship moved away slowly, and I groaned. I felt dizzy, and not from sea sickness. Mages around me started forming a shield.

Within a minute, hexagons of light appeared around the ship, linking together and forming a beehive structure. The last thief got on the boat, and the doors closed and the boat pulled away. Archers ran into the port, firing arrows at us. The shield took some heavy hits, and faded slightly. It completely collapsed in the area we were in. I threw some stars at the incoming arrows, but I couldn't aim anymore, everything was starting to blur. Nearby thieves starting throwing stars, the amount blocking a few arrows, but it wasn't enough.

A nearby group was injured by a arrow bomb, a few of them dead. Mike threw another explosive, hitting a large group of archers. The shield reformed, and we got out of range of most of the heaviest fire. A few stray arrows still hit us, but they grew less powerful over time. I dropped on the ground.

Everything was so sudden, I couldn't believe it was only this morning that I was looking at the news about Perion agreeing on a new price for the water that was filtered and piped from Kerning City. I felt the arrows still in my side and my other injuries, and laid now, waiting for the worst to past.

* * *

If you have read this far and have not left a review, then I implore you to do so. The next chapter depends on it.


	4. Ellinia

Well, here is the fourth chapter. For a certain reviewer that asked why I made them thieves when they could basically become any class they wanted,I do not plan to make them warriors or archers. Ice does not possess much strength, and his weapon, although the sharpest in the world, can't penetrate through magical barriers. Also, about them becoming so strong that they will need amazingly strong enemies to match them, I have that planned out. Also, a certain ultimate enemy of the entire world is returning.

* * *

I opened my eyes, then shut them from the blinding light. I still felt tired, I felt like I could sleep for another three hours. I felt someone shake me. I didn't respond, and they shook me again, harder. I charged some mana, and gave my attacker a static shock.

"Eek!" A heard a girl's voice cry. I heard a satisfying crash as someone fell over, knocking over a table of some sort. I heard the person get up, and then felt a huge blast of cold air hit my bed. I was blown off, and I flipped and hit the floor. I stood up quickly. A blue-haired girl stood there, not looking too happy. She was wearing a white shirt and jeans, and pale blue earrings. She was beautiful.

I looked around the room I was in, it was white and tiled, a hospital of some sort. Outside the window, an afternoon light streamed in, although the sun was out of sight. Instead, huge green trees grew everywhere, and I was suddenly aware the building was not on the ground, but up in the air, held by the trees. 5 other beds were crammed in the room which apparently was only supposed to be holding 2 people. A few different people lay in the beds, injured in one way or another.

"What was that for?" She demanded.

"Sorry, I'm not a morning person. Why did you wake me up?" I asked, rubbing my eyes.

"You're fixed, like every thief in this room. I'm just helping the clerics, they are working like bees. I was sent to wake you guys up. We're running out of beds, so get out." She said. She still sounded irritated, and took out her anger by shaking another innocent thief. When he didn't wake up, she took out a water bottle, and splashed some on his face, before shoving him out of the room half asleep and confused.

"That many people were injured? Running out of beds?" I replied. I suddenly saw a name tag on her shirt, showing 'Az' as her name.

"Yeah, I know. Ellinia has never seen so many injured people at once." Az said. I suddenly felt a splash of cold water. "That was for shocking me, now get out."

I barely recalled last night on the boat, but it was the next day. "So what else happened? Why did Perion and Henesys attack so suddenly? It makes no sense..." I asked, as Az shook 2 thieves to wake them up.

"The leaders from Perion and Henesys were both killed. One by magic, another by dagger. Perion relies on Kerning City for water, if they had waited, you could defeat them without ever attacking. The warrior's council probably realized this, and teamed up with Henesys to wage war. It seems sudden and rash, but they are angry. Of course, they also blame Ellinia, it won't be long before we get attacked." Az said, throwing the two thieves out.

"What about the leader for Ellinia, Grendal?

"Dead as well."

"Who could be killing all of them? There's no way these people didn't plan this out, is some group trying to start a war?" I asked.

"Don't ask me! What do I like look, an enemy spy? Ask someone else for once!" She said, waking up the last thief in the room.

"I see, 's just been so crazy and sudden, I still can't believe they could do something like this. Anyway, where is the university of Ellinia?" I asked.

"Burned down."

"Explain please."

"A few warriors snuck in and set fire to the place. After capturing them and learning of the deaths of the town leaders from them, we set up a barrier to see anyone coming into the forest." She said. "Apparently, they didn't know our leaders were killed as well. They think we started this war. **Now get out!**" She shouted, throwing the last scared thief out of the room. He hit the wall and ran as fast as he could. I felt a little sorry for him.

"Alright! Sorry, sorry!" I said, moving out of the door. "So much for learning magic..." I sighed.

"You? Learn magic? You're a shadower, what do you need magic for?" Az asked, walking out of the room and making a hand signal to a cleric at the end of the hall.

"I was raised by the dark lord, he says I learned very quickly. I don't know how true it is, but I've always had a thing for ice and lightning." I said. I was about to wonder out loud if my parents were powerful ice/lightning mages, but I decided I didn't need to tell her the story of my life. I formed andice shard, then let it fall to the ground and shatter.

"That wasn't too bad, not much mana wasted on the act itself, but it wouldn't be an attack spell on it's own. But still, shouldn't you be concentrating on shadower skills?" She said, looking down at the remains of my shard.

"I've learned all the useful ones. The Dark Lord always said that instinct is needed fo thieves, warriors, and archers, but mages use pure intelligence, which anyone can gain, although few ever want to do so."

"Smart guy." Az said. I then realized we had been walking side by side. "I'm done for today, see you later." Az called to a girl at a desk. She wasn't a cleric, and I assumed all the clerics were doing the healing, and other jobs were being handled by volunteers.

"He was. I wonder what he would say about this war..." I trailed off, thinking of his memory.

"There's a funeral this evening. For all the town leaders, they all worked for peace. I can show you later, if you want." Az said. I caught a small amount of caution in her voice, she was being careful not to step on any psychological land mines.

"Thanks, that would be wonderful. Let's change the subject." I said, as we walked outside the hospital.

I walked at her side, slightly behind her so that I could see where she was going. The white, gleaming 3 floor hospital behind me was stuck right into a huge tree. We walked along a few rope bridges and large branches. The green forest shined around us, it seemed to glow with power. The large, thick branches made some places seem like full floors. Houses where stuck right into trees, clear pipes with what looked like water flowing in them were visible on the outside. I looked at the paths arranged in a haphazard manner, made of branches and hanging wooden bridges. I wondered if even half of them could support the weight of two people. The road safety manager at Kerning City would have fainted at the sight of this.

"I forgot, why are you still following me?" Az asked, stepping onto a path marked by branches and vines.

"Don't know. Never been to Ellinia, and the only thing I know I need to do is head over to that funeral this evening, and figure out where I can learn magic." I replied, stepping over a fallen branch. Az kicked it off the path.

"Would you be interested... in learning a...different...kind of magic?" Az asked. Her voice changed slightly, which I could recognize. She wanted something.

"What do you mean, different? More powerful?" I asked.

"It could be, and it will also use less mana. The only problem is, most of it is difficult compared to the normal spells that people learn, and some of them have weaknesses that would drive away any ordinary mage. Me andmy friend have been looking for someone who learns quickly, who actually wants to learn it, andis willing to become our first test student. No, never mind, it's just a silly idea, just forget about it..." She looked away, letting her words fall.

"Tell me more."

"So you ARE interested. You see, me andmy friend can develop spells. Any mage can, and there are lots of people developing better magic attacks for newer mages. We're still learning, but I think if would be very helpful for us if we had someone testing our magic theories, andalso someone requesting certain types of attacks, so we can get the practice we need in developing spells based on demand." Az said, her tone still uncertain.

"Oh, like product testing. Develop, test, develop more based on results, test, repeat until you get a really good product. I guess I could do that." I said.

"Really?" She asked, stopping and looking at me, a phantom of a smile pulling at her lips.

"Sure. When do we start?" I asked.

"We can start right now, testing a new invention of mine, or rather, an ignored old one. You've heard of magical arrows, no?" Az asked.

"Yeah, Jack uses fire arrows, any other type of magic would blow up in his face." I said.

"I know the perfect place to teach you. It's still under construction, but they will let me in." Az said. We stopped, andI took the chance to look around, realizing this was the center of the town.

All around, tree branches made a huge circle around an empty area. I couldn't tell how wide it was, there was no near refrencepoint, but my glasses did the measuring for me. It was nearly a full kilometer in diameter. You could see everything happening all around, small people on the other side walking in and out of buildings, people selling things near the most crowded areas, and even a few mages casting spells. I looked down the center of the huge void, and saw just how far up we were from the grassy forest floor. Sunlight streamed in from above, where the forest cleared up just enough to let light in, bathing everything in a bright and warm glow. At the bottom, a single tree was growing, and it looks like it was going to shoot up in the center in a few decades. I took a quick picture with my glasses, this was one I would keep.

"What happens if you fall?" I asked. There were many questions, but looking down, that was my first.

"A mana barrier is always active, you'll basically bounce off the mana net and get launched onto a cushioned area, used to catch people who fall, or jump on purpose." She said. "Our destination is very close to one of those recovery cushions, so let's jump!" She said enthusiastically.

"Wait, what?" I asked, and I was hoping for a reasonable explanation. That never came, she grabbed my hand and jumped off, and I fell off with her. We fell multiple floors, passing by the large branches. Then I saw a green mesh-net appear out of thin air, and it stopped and bounced us over towards the the side, heading towards more trees. We fell further, spinning through the air, and landed on a real wire net. Az was laughing, and I was just trying to catch my breath.

"Don't ever do that again. Really. " I said. She kept laughing, and pulled me off the net. This place was safer then it first seemed, but I still prefered both feet on a solid surface.

The branch we were on was incredibly wide, almost like a field. It was all taken up by a huge wooden building, with a normal triangle roof, it could probably cover size of a football field. I wondered how you could even get a branch to grow like this, then I realized this was a town of mages. There was probably some spell or some potion that made them grow like this, and I gave it no further thought. We walked inside the hall.

The inside was much more impressive. It was divided into three sections, the first section was the closest to the entrance, and the 2nd and third were further down. The first section was a restraunt of some sort, though there was no one sitting or eating. Both sides had counters that would sell food over glass containers showcasing food, but they were empty now. Different colored couches and wooden tables were scattered over a red carpet, in a random order. I assumed this was for resting, talking, and maybe discussing of training methods. The kitchens were apparently still under construction. This section took up a fourth of the entire building, and at the end was a large reinforced glass wall that separated it from the next area.

The second area had multiple dummies in lots of different arenas or just open floors stood, most of the floor was a polished rosewood. It was dusty, and many arenas where being finished. People were apparently testing some of the magic.

A mage, wearing a white wizard hat and a robe green robe with white sleeves and gold stars on the front was standing in front of one of these targets. As we walked near him, Az held a hand out to stop me, apparently wanting me to watch. I waited as the mage pressed the front of the wooden target, anda screen came up, expanding into a hologram of a menu. It showed what kind of person he wanted to fight. He chose warrior, and a large array of choices came up, showing the major options first, then showing a few lesser ones at the bottom in smaller print. He chose to have heavy armor, light weapons, low strength, low skill, and medium agility, and chose it to be a human warrior. He ignored the lesser stats and press the large green start button. Instantly a strange, blue mist came over the figure, and it came together and formed into a misty figure of a warrior, holding a one handed sword and shield, dressed in full metal armor. It became less and less misty, and more clear quickly. The mage took out a staff with a gray body and a orange orb on the top.

The mage formed and launched a fire arrow at the warrior-thing, and it raised it shield andblocked most of the damage. The sheer impact from the arrow hurt his arm, but he endured it well and walked slowly towards the mage, shield raised and cautious. The mage fired another arrow, but the warrior tilted his shield and ran, letting the arrow be deflected off him as he came closer. He reached the mage and slashed, but the mage flashed blue and teleportedfew feet behind the warrior. He formed what looked like a green bubble, and threw it at the warrior. The warrior turned his head and saw it, and ducked under it. However, the bubble impacted on the inside of his shield, exploding into his face, as a green mist spread and dissolved. He coughed and chocked, turning. He made a final lunge, and the mage launched an arrow again, hitting him in the chest and blasting the blue mist off. Some of it came back and started jumping and forming a warped image of the warrior, which turned to fuzz. The mage took out a control and pressed a button, and this faded. The only thing left was the puppet.

"Still a few glitches. Try lowering the power of that crystal, I think it's causing an imbalance." The mage said, talking to another girl.

"That is awesome." I said smiling a bit. Az smirked, and led me around the fighting stage. The 3rd area was a targeting range. It was perpendicular to the last section, a walkway on the right side and targets on the left. A thief was there, throwing stars at red and white targets. The targets moved back and forth, on fixed paths. Some moved up and down, others swung side to side like a pendulum, some were big, some were small. A star hit the target on the outer reach of the large target, and then some blue mist pushed it out and reformed the target. An angled and apparently slippery floor refunded the ammo, the star slid back. The thief took out a clipboard, and wrote in it.

"What do you know so far about magic?" Az asked as we passed the thief and walked a bit of a distance past him. The place still seemed empty, probably because it was still under construction.

"Nothing. I can use ice and lightning magic, but I don't know how to apply it to fighting besides shuriken," I said.

"Alright then, this should be basic enough." Az said. "Watch carefully." She took out her staff, gleaming as if made of a dark crystal, with a blue gem on the top, but it wasn't a sapphire. She focused mana into the staff, and started pulling back a string of mana. She formed an arrow, and released the string. The mana string launched the frozen arrow as it blasted through a target, getting stuck halfway. It glowed, then exploded, sending sharp pieces of ice at other targets.

"Now you try!" She said. I didn't have a staff with me, so I decided to just use my dagger. I focused energy into it, and tried to form the arrow. It worked, but I didn't know how to fire it.

"Oh, you don't have a staff?" She asked.

"No, what do I do?" I asked, still trying to keep the arrow together.

"Here, try remembering to form the mana _exactly _like I'm forming it." She said. She grabbed my arm, and I felt her mana interfering with mine. I let her take over, and carefully felt how she was giving the arrow a fuel, and a special shape. It was like a jet engine, though not as complicated and not as reliable. She then ignited the fuel, and it flew straight and true, missing a target by an inch.

"Try it, it's difficult, but you should be able to get the basic shape." She said. I tried forming my mana like she had, and kept it right at the tip of my dagger for maximum control. I did everything Az had, and the arrow fired just like hers, hitting a target and exploding.

"That's it! Good job. Keep practicing." Az said. I formed another arrow and fired, and another, and another. Every single time it became easier, until I could fire them pretty quickly, though shuriken were faster any day.

"Is this it to the spell? Anything else about it?" I asked, forming an arrow with thunder inside. It exploded at first, and I remade it and made sure to seperate the eletricity from the fuel.

"As you've seen, forming a single arrow is pretty quick for magic, and powerful. The problem with this is that it's a single arrow, on it's own anyone could block it or dodge it, if they were real soldiers. This is why you launch lots of them at the same time, but it takes longer to form more arrows. Also, the control of your arrows directly relies on your focus, if you get hit by even a weak attack, you'll probably lose the arrows you're making. Most mages choose to use arrows only in singles, since they fight monsters, which come in large numbers with long range attacks. Multiple arrow attacks have been considered for the normal mage textbook, but they would only be good when fighting other humans-" Az said.

"-And the mage council or whoever decided that wasn't a good thing at that time." I finished.

"Yeah. Anyway, I'll teach you about homing arrows soon. Just form your mana like this-" She said. I smiled, at least I had something to do for today.

* * *

A few hours later, after getting some dinner, we arrived at the quiet forest floor. A few fires were burning, but everyone was seated on the ground or standing on the sides, barely visible in the darkness. There must have been at least 300. Two large wooden coffins hungin the air by some invisible force. I guess either magic or strings. I sat down, and Az sat down next to me, and was silent, as everyone else. I decided this would be where I would think him. I had avoided the thought of his death, and coming here hadn't been easy. I promised myself that I wouldn't hang on to his memory. A tear for his loss now, and then I would move on. I hoped it would be that simple.

A man, dressed in a robe, came up. I couldn't see what color it was, the fire was at his back, and I could only see a black figure blocking the light.

"Today, we have gathered to honor, and remember, the four greatest adventurers of our time. A long life, they did live, but an unknown hand has cut them short. We shall remember their deeds, for the thousands of warriors, magicians, archers, and thieves they taught. Yet, they did not teach them directly. They gave them the tools to teach themselves, they gave them all they needed. They worked for peace, and kept it, despite the rising tempers of many people. Though now thier deaths may lead to war, let us honor thier memory tonight, and think about the future tomorrow." He said, in a long, drawn out voice. It wasn't a long or amazing speech, but it got the message across, and a few people burst out sobbing.

I did feel sad, and I wondered if there was a heaven for him. I certainly hoped so. I looked at Az, her eyes closed, apparently deep in thought or sadness. The coffin was lowered into the ground. I walked away from the sight, Az following.

"Well, I'm glad I came. I still don't know what to do about tonight, though." I said.

"You can stay with me. Almost every mage is giving up a spare bed or two, since our population pretty much tripled. I'd rather share my house with you then with a creep." Az said. She led me along another path, I looked back at the fires still burning at the funeral.

"Good bye, dark lord. Now, I take my own path, and I only hope I can put your training to good use. This is our last meeting, and my last thoughts for you. Until we meet somewhere unknown, goodbye." I said, in a low voice. I turned and walked away into the endless darkness of the forest.

* * *

Another blue-haired freak! Well, anyone can have any hair color they so wish in maple, so why not? To anyone wondering why the dark lord didn't keep the moon cross for himself: He didn't know about it. It was a gift from the Ellinia university, not from the dark lord himself. Anyway, he was carrying a cake, and was caught off guard by a mine and a barrage of arrows. Not easy to escape.

I had written this story before, then uploaded it to edit it and polish it. Then when I went to click save, I saw one more error, and pressed backspace. Of course, the computer decided this meant to return to the last web page, and I lost a lot of my work. If you see any errors, please point them out, I'm not perfect, and I'm writing this on notepad, and my computer acts strange around microsoft word. Spell check on here sucks, it says I've spelled the 'nd' of every 'and' incorrectly. So yeah, I have to trust my damaged eyes to see the mistakes. Checking for mistakes takes up at least 75% of the work that goes into each chapter, if not more.

This has been the hardest chapter to write so far. Not making it seem strange for Az to suddenly start teaching magic to Ice was difficult, I've rewrote it completely three times. Even the current one isn't very good in my opinion. Well, what do you think of it? Review and tell me.


	5. The war starts

Well, pretty much all the main characters are in play now. I'm trying to keep the number of named characters down, because I've seen some fan fictions that have the entire first chapter devoted to the names of like 10 or 20 different people. Actually, that's what happened on my lit/comp test on the _odyssey. _There are like 6 different characters I had to name, all of them started with Eu and only had 3 letter differences between them. I'm bad at remembering things like that.

* * *

I woke up, trying to remember where I was. The last memory was leaving the funeral. I sat up, and looked around. Walls of ice surrounded my bed, explaining why it had been so cold at night.

"Az?" I asked. The walls shattered, breaking and falling to the ground. I was in a medium sized room, there was a desk in the corner, 2 beds, and 2 doors. One led outside, and the other I couldn't tell. The entire place was carved out of green wood, and then polished carefully. Small vines with leaves and charts with science and math figures hanged from the walls, and windows were cut right into the wood. I looked outside, and saw the forest, and a green glow came from almost everywhere.

Even the beds were carved right from wood, and then sheets and some other material were put on top of it. The bed on the other side of the room was empty, the bed overturned. The oak wood mystery door opened, and Az walked in, the room was apparently a bathroom, from what I could see.

"Morning." Az said, pushing the water our her hair with a mana spell.

"What were the ice walls for?" I asked.

"I couldn't trust you that easily." Az said, writing on a paper.

"Good. It's a sure sign of intelligent life when you don't trust a shadower." I said.

"I didn't mean it like that. Either way, we're going out. The town has called a meeting, there's a good chance we'll be put into squads or platoons or some other method of fighting they can come up with. We're at war, after all." Az said. She furiously scribbled out something on her paper.

"Oh, crap. Well, I can't say I wasn't wondering how we would be organized." I said, getting off my bed.

"You should wash up, you've got half an hour to get ready." Az said.

* * *

"Wow." I said. Wow didn't even describe it. On the forest floor beneath the center of Ellinia. There was not enough room anywhere up in the trees for all these people. They were everywhere, between trees, sitting on roots, some had even made platforms for themselves. They were all crowded around a few council members, wearing elaborate red robes. Az made an ice platform near enough to the council members, and I jumped onto it, being careful to keep my grip. Az teleported up with me.

There must have been at least three times as many people as there were at the funeral, if not many, many more. I couldn't count them at all. A barrier separated the council members from us, which was probably smart. The front council member, having his or her hood over her face and hidden hair started talking. It was a strange voice, you couldn't tell at all if it was a boy or a girl, but it still commanded authority.

"Greetings, all mages, thieves, and others. You know why we meet this morning. We are here to talk about our defense. Or rather, your defense. Anyone above level 70 will be required to enter the army, we are facing annihilation." She said. There was a number of murmurs and some disagreements. I wondered how many would fake thier way out of this.

"We will also be taking any cleric, regardless of level. If a cleric under 70 so wishes it, he or she may stay at Ellinia, healing the injured here, instead of going anywhere near the front lines. Also, anyone below level 70 may apply for the army, but you will probably not going to see any fighting. We can use all the manpower we can get, for raising food, for watch duties, for delivery duties, for other jobs. You won't be on the front lines, but you will still be an important part of the army." The council member on the right said. There was more chatter, this time it was impossible to hear anything specific. Most of it seemed positive, some seemed to be complaining.

"We'll be announcing how you will be organized as soon as possible. There will be a survey later, we need to know what troops we have, so that we can organize you in the best possible way for the defense of Ellinia." The third council member said, in the same exact voice as the other two.

The area was quiet for a while then suddenly thousands of people started speaking and asking questions. The front council member waved for quiet again, and received it.

"Now, I know none of you like being led by a faceless government. We do it for our own protection, because we aren't as confident about our abilities to defend ourselves as the four leaders were. We are humans, under these hoods, and past these voice changers. We are still mages, we still want to protect Ellinia. It is as much of your home as it is ours." She said. The other council members looked away, apparently trying to look innocent. A few people clapped, but not many.

"Dismissed then." He/She said, in a sad but still warped tone. People started filing out by the hundreds. The council members were gone in a large flash, probably some sort of teleporting spell.

"Well, that was interesting. Looks like I'm going to be up at the front line, then." I said.

"Let's head to the training hall." Az said. I nodded, and we started moving through the trees. Hundreds of people were teleporting all around me, the green forest branches were covered in blue flashes. Az was among them, and I followed her carefully. We went up, staying near the center of the town, until we got up to the correct height. We walked towards the familiar wooden building, the outside was being decorated by steel supports and different colored crystals. We walked in and there were more things finished. We went up to the target area, but it was closed. Apparently there was another problem being fixed.

As we turned, I saw Jack walk in. "Jack!" I shouted. He looked up, waved back. I used a quick shadow step to get right up to him. Az teleported.

"Where have you been? Jess was worried that you died or something." Jack said, putting his hands in his pockets.

"I've been around." I said. Az looked at Jack, then looked past him at a red haired girl walking in the door.

"Ruby!" Az called, waving at her.

"Az! I found a lab rat to use!" She called back, teleporting right up.

"Lab rat?" Jack asked.

"I found a willing test subject, we'll try all the dangerous spells on the lab rat." Az said, smiling.

"What?" Jack asked, looking at Ruby.

"We're kidding." Ruby said. "The more, the merrier, I suppose. You can teach that guy, this is guy here will make a perfect apprentice. He's got the explosions down, he just needs to work on aiming them." Ruby said, looking at Jack with an amused smile. I looked at the door again.

"Small world, isn't it Ice?" Mike said, walking into the area. He tapped his glasses and apparently sent an email.

"Letting Jess know, I suppose?" I asked.

"Yeah. I see you've found an interesting girl." Mike said. Az quickly punched him in the stomach.

"I don't need comments from you." She said.

"Ah, you've chosen well." He said, clutching his stomach for a second, then standing again.

"So who are these people?" Az asked. "You seem to know them pretty well."

"That's Jack. He's an airhead who uses fire." I said, pointing at a protesting red head boy. "That's Mike, calm, smart, and loves eating. He's pretty good at some unsual magic, he find it easy to increase the mass of objects. It's dark magic, I guess."

"That's interesting." Ruby said. "Gravity users are pretty rare."

"He's stronger then I am." I sighed. It was true, he matched me for skills perfectly. I was a little faster, but he knew where to use his dark void punches, and when. Each one felt like a sledgehammer.

"Why don't we have a rematch? It's been a long time since we last fought. Here, we can use those training shields." Mike said. He tossed me a black vest that was folded over a wooden peg. I put it on, and scanned it with my glasses. These vests would protect from a certain amount of damage, represented by a hit point bar on the sleeve. I got it updated right on my glasses, so I could see it constantly. I also got Mike's hit bar. The scan also showed me that this shield would only work within an advanced magical circle, supported by a rare crystal, and taking up to 100 hours of 24/7 monitering to set up.

"Should be good." Jack said.

"Never seen shadowers fight." Az commented. Mike and I walked to a small stage, it was raised, but had no walls. It was pretty big, and was meant to give a lot of space to fight, apparently.

"Alright Ice. You've got new weapons, and new powers, let's see if they are any help to you. By the way, don't worry about chopping my dagger in half, I've done some enchanting, it can't be split by a sharper weapon." Mike said. I guessed that even if my weapon was sharper, it would just mean more damage when I cut him. Or, maybe not at all, if these shields were smart enough. What would it matter how sharp the weapon is, if it chopped a limb off all the same?

I started off simple. A few stars, followed by 5 magical arrows. Mike easily dodged both, then was suddenly gone. I remembered bitterly his dark sight was much better then mine, he was amazing at stealth. I knew I would be taking some damage, his assassinate was well planned. The first hit was just a distraction and easy to dodge, the second and third came so fast it was extremely difficult to dodge both, and either one would force your gaurd away from your core, and then he would make a huge stab right through the center, followed by a quick spin to get behind the enemy and continue attacking, although it was rarely needed. That stab was fatal almost all the time, and he had nearly killed me once with it.

I listened carefully, though I knew it was in vain. I could only hope to hear him the moment before he struck. I thought I heard a music player, very faint and with a very strange, though somewhat comforting tune. Mike suddenly appeared in front of me, his dagger sailing down in a greenish glow. I dodged to the side of the first strike well enough, then ducked under the second strike, and saw the third strike, moving slower then it should have, and jumped right away as it swing under me. I spun in the air, and kicked Mike in the side of the head, and tried to stab at him, but he jumped back. Part of his hit bar went down.

"You've gotten better." Mike said. He wasn't hurt at all, thanks to the barrier. I quickly launched a few magical arrows, then used a shadow step as he dodged. I came behind him, but he knew my technique, and deflected a quick stab I had made. I used my mana to speed up my arm, and rapidly attacked 6 times. Mike jumped out of range, then used a dark void punch the second my slashes ended. I stepped to the side, and tried to stab him in the stomach, but he brought his dragon khanjer down, slicing across my arm. My hit points went down a bit as well. I barely deflected a huge slash he made as he passed me, the famous assaulter. He threw a small explosive at me, and I smacked it away with the back of my hand, and it was sent off. I saw Mike glow yellow, and I desperately defended against one huge slash, and was directly hit by the second return hit. The explosives went off, they were a distraction. Mike used a quick dark void punch, sending me back 10 feet.

I quickly recovered, and ducked around more explosives. I charged up 20 magical arrows and launched them. He did an amazing job dodging them, but 7 of them still struck him, the ice deforming and sticking to him, weighing him down. Before he could get them off, I used a quick assaulter to hit him and get behind him. I turned and used darksight for a split second before going right for an assassinate. Three of the cuts tore into the shield, but the ice was cut off and Mike dodged the final lunge. I turned around and barely avoided a dark void punch, which scraped the side of my stomach. I blocked a stab by his other arm, grabbing his arm with my hand. The advantage of a dagger that rests on top of the hand instead of in it.

I used my left hand to grab the back of his head, and bring it down as I jumped, smashing his head into my knee, and then letting my leg unfold to push him back. I used a quick boomerang step, hitting him twice as he fell. He landed and flipped over and jumped right back at me in under a second, like a wild animal. He used an assaulter, which caught me off-gaurd, and I quickly turned. I barely dodged one void punch, and I dodged to the wrong side, the dragon khanjer scraping my shield. Even in all this, Mike seemed a step or two slower. The khanjer scraped along my left side, and I let the rest of the blade pass before moving back to Mike's side. I grabbed his left hand holding the dragon khanjer with my left hand, then pulled it away from Mike, and put my right elbow up and launched it right into his neck as he was forced forward into it. The combined speed of himself and my elbow did real heavy damage. His right arm flew at me with a rough and inaccurate stab, which was expected and easily dodged. I quickly withdrew my right arm, and jumped off him, just in time to avoid the heavy swing, before he glowed yellow again. I deflected the first and could not react to the second, as usual. Mike was in the same position, and I sent a few stars at him, pushing him back. I leaped back and charged up 30 ice and thunder arrows, dodging a few stars sent to interrupt me.

Mike tried to rush at me and use assaulter, but my arrows were done, and I launched them. He got hit by one or two thunder arrows, jumped around and avoiding the cluster of stars. I took advantage of this and used darksight, walking behind him and charging up energy, while keeping the arrows following him. Mike dodged the group of arrows again, and then an ice arrow struck his foot. He seemed to instantly realized the danger, and I made sure he knew it.

"Done." I said, as I let the charged mana enter my blade and slash his shield three times, before making a huge stab that sent me past him. His shield flashed red.

"That's incredible!" Ruby called. Mike's shield failed altogether, and I let the rest of the magic arrows hit the floor. It was really difficult to make them turn sharply, the homing ability was useless with a lot room.

"That is better then any mage fight I've ever seen." Az said, impressed.

"Well, I could have done better but..." Jack started, I threw my vest at him, knocking him over.

"Assaulter, boomerang step, even savage blow. I've been meaning to ask this, but, do shadowers use techniques to speed themselves up?" Ruby asked.

"Yeah. In second job, they only feel the burn of the arm being sped up. Since it is short and there is a pause, it gives them a chance to recover. Then in third job, they use the entire body. Assaulter is very difficult to use at first, you can't really concentrate on your attack when you are not only feeling the speed but also the g-force and burn as your entire body is put to it's limit. You'll notice that they have a large delay after assaulter, this is to recover. At fourth job, they've become more used to the force, and can withstand it for longer, but then need a longer time to recover. That's what boomerang step's delay is about, feeling the acceleration twice is very dangerous without training." I said.

"Wait..." Az said, and starting doing some figuring in her head. "Wouldn't the G-force of the instant acceleration from assaulter kill you anyway?"

"It's a mana technique. We used the mana give ourselves resistance for a second, but not full immunity. We eventually gain our own resistance, pretty soon we can stand the forces without any troubles." I said. "It's also why you can't have any other class just become a third job or higher thief. You need to understand and feel the pain from all the techniques, in order to eventually overcome it. The shadower path is difficult."

"Wow, thanks for the info. The fight was helpful. Now that I know the pace of your fighting, I know the speed of the spells you need." Ruby said.

"I've never seen fighting like that. It's seems skilled, yet fierce..." Az said, looking at Mike, who was putting away the shields and coming back.

"You've gotten a lot stronger. Those arrows are basic, but versatile. I'll be suprised if you can't figure out more uses for them in the next few days." Mike called. "Your reactions seem faster, though."

I shrugged, and just then became aware of that tune that I heard before. It faded away, and I decided to ignore it. I had been lucky in my fight against Mike, I wasn't sure how it would go if we fought again.

"We should head back. We'll probably get our survey before lunch, let's all meet at the potion shop at 12, ok?" Az asked. Ruby nodded, and was gone in a teleport. Az looked at me, then walked towards the door. I followed.

"See you later, Ice." Mike called.

I walked after Az, out of the training hall, and into the lush green forest. The light shining through trees seemed brighter then yesterday, and I could feel the warmth of the day. We walked up the paths, up near the top of the forst where the house Az lived in was carved into a tree. Pipes ran along the outside, Az had told me that they carried whatever the tree got from it's roots. It was a careful process that did minimum damage to the tree. I liked the idea a lot.

"Ah, good." A man who was standing at the door said. He handed us both a piece of paper, and gave us a pen. "You know what this is, I take it? I'll wait, just hurry." I looked down at the paper he had given us. It was the survey, I gussed. I took out a pen, and quickly filled in my info. Class, shadower. Level, special notes, and weapon. All were filled out and given back in a minute. Az did the same.

"Thank you. And goodbye." He tipped a hat he had on, then left with a teleport. I let out a breath.

"I wonder where I'm going to be fighting." I said. "Somewhere without rain or mud, I hope."

* * *

I lost a lot of the work I made when editing this, because I pressed the save button and it told me I wasn't logged in anymore, and I lost all the work I did. Really, really, really lame, and ironic. Pressing save made me lose my work. Yeah, I guess I'll have to be more careful. Fail.

I think this chapter isn't too bad, leading up to more action, and including the first challanging 1v1 fight. This chapter also had some explainations. I put them in there because I didn't want assaulter and boomerang step to be seen as the normal speed for Ice/other shadowers. They can only use it for a second, it's not like they can turn into a streak of gold and kill everything.

As for the chapter itself, I had to rewrite it because I wasn't happy with a few things. I want to keep a decent pace of decent chapters, as well as a decent quality. Tell me if you see any huge spelling errors or parts that you simply don't understand, I'll have to do my best to fix that. As for the next chapter, it might come a bit slow. I've got a lot of homework, and I might need to change the entire content of the next chapter in order for the story to make as much sense as possible.


	6. Our first assignment

Well hello, anyone who decided to keep reading! I assume that unless you are one of 4 people that have actually reviewed, you haven't really thought about pressing that button at the bottom. Well, think about it now. It'll give me an idea of what you want. I'm updating a little slower, I've had a lot to do lately. This chapter was a bit rushed.

* * *

"You've got to be kidding me." I said. The squad I was supposed to be in seemed rather dull. A few hermits, a chief bandit, and Az. I have no idea how she had gotten in with us, I had gotten the idea that this would be a thief only squad.

"Well, I wrote that I was teaching you. I guess that's why I got into your squad, or maybe because of him." Az said.

"Him?" I asked. A man walked towards us. We were sitting in the rest area of the training hall, having no other place to gather.

"Alright, squad 17. Here's the mission." The man interrupted. He was a lieutenant, from the badge on his shirt. The lieutenant handed Az the mission papers. She read through them quickly, while the lieutenant left.

"What is it?" I asked. I figured our first mission would probably be lame, to test us.

"Apparently, we're gathering weapons for the thieves. We're heading back to kerning. A lot of weapons were lost, if we can retrieve them before Perion and Henesys attack us, we'll have many more attackers on our side. The council sees this as a really high priority mission, they plan to send three other teams in case one fails." Az said, reading over the paper. "We also get magical space distortion packs. Here." She said, tossing one to all of us.

"So why are you in this unit? I'm not complaining, but wouldn't it hinder us since you can't use dark sight?" I asked. Az shot me a glare, but looked back at her paper.

"There is a shortage of weapons for thieves, and therefore, of thieves that can fight. That's what this mission is supposed to solve. There are also six full squads heading over to Kerning City right now to look for the weapon smiths, so that we can produce weapons here." Az said. 9 squads heading back to Kerning city? It sounded like utter chaos.

"Ah, I see. When do we leave?" I asked. I looked over at the thieves, who apparently were regarding us both as the leaders.

"Well, the council says as soon as possible. They want us ready for an attack, and other squads are probably already on their way there. How long will it take you people to get ready to go?" Az asked, turning to the thieves.

"30 minutes." Said a few hermits. Az let out a groan. I wondered if I should have shouted at them for not bringing thier weapons.

"Half that." Said an already dressed hermit. Better, I couldn't really ask for more. Probably making sure he has everything, getting anything that might be needed, I'd accept him.

"I'm ready now." The girl chief bandit said. I smiled, this one was either a bit rash, or she already knew how serious this war was and how valuable time was right now.

"Hour." A girl hermit said. My smiled faded quickly.

"Why in the world would it take an hour to get ready?" I asked to the hermit girl.

"Just to get my stars and claws and-" She said, but Az interrupted.

"Why exactly don't you carry your weapons with you at all times? This is** war**, after all." Az said.

"Fine, 30 minutes." She said. Az growled.

"Brats…" She sighed. "Go ahead, meet back here as soon as possible. Pick up some food that you can carry, and hurry up." Az said, lowering her head. The thieves scattered in a mess of flash jumps.

"Really, an hour? Where does she live, sleepywood? I can't even believe these people would have the nerve not to show up with weapons ready, either." I sighed. Az nodded. The girl chief bandit sat down on a chair.

"They're probably all going to take showers, do their hair, and all that useless idiocy." Az said, letting out a loud, aggravated breath.

"I'm going to sleep. Mike told me that in war, you should never run when you can walk, you should never walk when you can stand, you should never stand when you can sit, you should never sit when you can lay down, and you should never stay awake when you can be asleep." I said, yawning and putting my head down. I heard Az laughing.

I slept in a strange way. I could ignore voices, sounds, and other random things, but calling my name, doing any sort of damage to me, or shaking/touching me would wake me up instantly. (Though the last option would probably earn the attacker an electric shock, as Az had learned.) I fell asleep, and suddenly became aware of a very faint sound. I couldn't discern it, nor could I tell where I was, or what I was. It was all just a confusing mess, as usual for a dream. The sound grew slightly clearer, and it sounded like a faint song. I couldn't discern the notes, and then someone called me.

"Ice." I heard. I woke up, and saw most of our squad back, armed with claws, and one person a dagger. The girl hermit was still gone.

"What?" I asked.

"It's been half an hour, I was wondering if you would like to know a move I came up with for you before we go." Az said, looking at me, and ignoring the other thieves.

"Yeah, might as well." I said. I turned to the other thieves. "Stay here, come tell us if Mrs. slow hermit comes back." I said.

"It's really simple." Az said. Getting up and walking over to the fighting area. I followed her, letting the thieves sit down and talk among themselves.

"Put your hands on the target, and just let me show you. Careful with your mana, now that you've gotten the basics down, your body will try to deny foreign invaders with mana, like an immune system. Do not reject my touch." Az said. She held me arm, and I carefully convinced myself that she was not an attacker. I convinced myself she was not a danger, there was no reason to fear her or her touch.

"Now, remember what I'm doing, and how I'm doing it." Az said. I felt an energy run through me, and the target I was touching was frayed by an electric current.

"That's pretty cool. It seems pretty quick, although the damage doesn't seem to be that great." I said. "Though if I already have an all-damaging dagger in my right hand..."

"Well, it was designed to attack quickly, so now your left hand can do damage as well." Az said.

"I see. Hey, look who decided to come back." I said, pointing over at the door. The girl hermit from our squad walked in, her hair was definitely shining a bit brighter then it was before.

"So where have you been?" I asked, using a shadow step to get behind her. She jumped and nearly screamed. She turned, she had put something else on her face, her skin was different.

"I was getting all my equipment." She said.

"More like treating your hair. Anyway, I would demand that you return the 15 minutes you wasted, but you can't. So let's just go before some other squad blows it and whatever security in Kerning city triples." Az called, getting quieter as she came closer.

"Is everyone ready, or does someone still need to do something else?" I asked. No one said anything.

"Let's go then." Az said, walking out. I followed after her, the thieves walking with us. "The plan is to head north of the worst part of sleepy wood. The idea is that Henesys has archers, meaning more sharp eyed, ranged patrols. Those are the patrols that can actually attack us." Az said.

The thieves could provide no counter argument, so we started off quickly. We jumped through the trees, slowed down by the other thieves. The chief bandit was having trouble keeping up, not knowing flash jump or teleport, and not having the leg strength to make jumps like mine. She was trying though. I stopped, letting her catch up. The other stopped as well.

"Should I carry her or something? Getting there faster would be nice." I said.

"Whatever." Az said. I looked at the chief bandit, who was looking a little unsure. I just grabbed her and put her on my back, and started jumping. It was a bit heavier, but heavier jumps compensated. I paid no attention to her at all.

We kept jumping for a long time, at a much faster pace. The hermits all had flash jump, so we could actually move. I could often be very impatient, I just didn't see the point of doing something slower when there was a faster way. Sometimes I had a very difficult time convincing myself that walking was a form of movement. It shouldn't be. The trees seemed to be turning from green to brown.

"Watch out. I hear something" Az said. We all stopped, and I looked down. The rocky ruins of some castle were moving, they floated and formed a golem of some sort. One of the hermits raised a star, but I grabbed his hand.

"No fool, look." I said. A warrior was slowly slashing the stone golems that formed.

"What do we do?" The chief bandit girl on my back said.

"We ignore him. We don't need to take the risk of him having a way of alerting Perion. One man is not worth the risk." I said. We continued on in silence, being as stealthy a possible. Az used combination of jumping and teleporting.

We soon reached an area where we could see the outskirts of the Kerning City. People were filing onto boats and leaving by any method they could. It didn't surprise me at all, it was probably under strict control.

"Head into the swamp. We have the most cover there." I said. The other thieves agreed. We jumped through the trees over the swamp. I stopped, and motioned everyone else to do the same.

"This is the point where the trees get shorter. We can't move like this, we need to proceed in dark sight. When we get closer, we'll need to stay out of the open, archers might notice small things and realize something is up." I said.

Az groaned. She wouldn't have dark sight at all. She resorted to teleporting between the trees carefully. I did the same with shadow step, it was very difficult with a girl on my back. I let her off so she could move on her own. The hermits couldn't use flash jump at all. We moved slowly and carefully towards the wall that signified the city. It felt like we had been moving for hours, though maybe that was just me. We finally pressed ourselves against it.

"What now?" Az asked. I looked over the walls.

"There. That leads into a air shaft into the subways. If we can get into the subways, we can get almost anywhere." I said. I walked up to it, it was tall enough to walk in. I took out my moon cross, and cut right through the metal grate.

I got in, while Az teleported in. The others followed. We walked into the darkness.

"I'll give us a light source." Az said.

"Don't. That'll be like a flare for our enemies. Step quietly." I said. We walked into further darkness, and jumped down a drop. We landed in the subway, a track below the platform. We just needed to follow this to the right station, and then take a secret entrance. We moved along the platform, still in dark sight just in case.

"Oh, no." I sighed.

"What is it?" A thief inquired.

"If you listen carefully, it sounds like there is a large group fighting another further down the tunnel. It looks like one of our squads was caught. We can either help them and risk our own stealth, or we can leave them and risk their lives. Raise your hands if you want to help them." I said. All of them raised their hands, including Az.

We started running towards the sound of fighting. We came to a station, and indeed they were fighting. Another squad of mostly hermits was standing behind a collapsed section of the roof, throwing stars at the archers firing at them. I quickly noted the fact that the entrance was caved in, there was a chance no archer had gotten away yet. Then I realized one of them must have had some sort of way to communicate, so it was pointless. They knew very well we were here.

Stars and arrows flew back and forth. The archers stood behind various rubble pieces, firing with great impact power. I quickly threw a few stars, killing an archer that was on the track, and jumped down near the rail. Staying away from the probably dead third rail, I quickly started moving. The platform raised on the side on either side of the track blocked me from their sight. I got to the opposite side where they were.

I charged up arrows, which took a while. The result was more then worth it, though. 40 arrows, my new record, smashed into the lines of archers. If they didn't hit and pin down the archers, they blasted away the cover that they were behind.

The archer lines quickly fell, a few boomerang steps and more stars saw to that. The last few archers were more skilled, their arrows had the impact of bombs. I quickly ducked behind the subway wall as the entire tunnel shook from the impact of the arrows.

A few more magical arrows came from the side, Az was attacking quickly. A third job archer stood and fired four arrows, killing one of the hermits on our squad. The archer was instantly struck by a thunder spear. I set up more arrows and fired, the impact blasting clouds of dust and mist into the air. I used dark sight and started creeping towards the area. A few last archers made a desperate stand. I moved up to the strongest, an experienced fourth job archer. He was pinning most of troops down with rapid fire arrows, but was paying no attention to his surroundings, a quick assassinate finished him.

The other archers saw me, turned and fired, and I quickly ducked over to the side. I rolled behind a ticket booth, but an archer was already there. A few stars from one of the squads hit him in the back, and I stood up and used savage blow to finish him. Blood splattered over the glass and walls. I ducked, arrows blasted through the window of the ticket selling booth, and I shielded my eyes from falling glass. I heard another scream, and hoped it was one of the archers. I charged up more arrows, only 10, and quickly fired them, before ducking under more fire. I couldn't tell what my arrows were doing. I kept firing arrows each time I got a chance, until I heard a final cry. I looked, and saw that all the archers were dead. I quickly hopped through the broken window back to our troops.

The turnout was bad. We had lost 6 hermits total, and the chief bandit was injured. She stood back and used mana to close some of her cuts. Crude, only effective on flesh wounds, but extremely useful.

"We need to get the weapons and leave as soon as possible." I said. Az nodded, the remaining thieves quickly moved with us. We ran to the next station.

"Here, there's a secret entrance." I said. I walked up to one of the walls inside a ticket booth, and pressed the bricks in a very specific order. One of the tiles flipped over, and a number pad came up. Az quickly went up to it.

"What's the code?" Az asked.

"2, 6, enter, 5, 3, clear, hold enter and press 5-" I said

"You do it." Az said. I typed in the strange code, then pressed all buttons at once. I pushed in a few more tiles, and then pressed the enter key again. The wall opened.

"Clever." Az said. We walked in, and I pressed a disguised button on one side of the wall as we passed, closing the door behind us, and we came to a dead end, with three pipes. I turned the center pipe clockwise three times, turned the left one four times clockwise, once counter clockwise, and twice more clockwise. I turned the third one three and a quarter clockwise, and five rotations counter, then pulled on it. I then smacked the top part of the middle pipe, and gave a small kick to the bottom of the left pipe. I then used an unarmed savage blow to tap the pipes 2 times each. The wall opened.

"Wow. That is one paranoid password." Az said.

"It leads directly into thief society. Like, directly, as in, directly. You can't let such an important route be easy to find." I said. We walked up the spiral stairs, and into the building above. We opened the door at the top. We were in the back of a storage room. It wasn't the one we needed, it was down the hall.

I slowly crept up to the door. I put one ear to it. There was no sound behind it. I motioned to the others, and opened the door, dagger raised. There was no one, and I used a quick shadow step to get down the hall. The others did the same. The hall had blue walls, untouched. White doors lined the hall. This was the supply area, it was hidden even better from the building itself. Meant only to be used in an emergency, so that the common thief would not take anything.

I opened the door, and saw exactly what I needed. Claws of every type hung from the wall. The dark lord had gathered the best weapon makers to make all these, and wanted to sell them. Being able to buy stronger claws would have benefited the thief society tremendously, but it was all old dreams now. The thieves looked in wonder at the crates of weapons.

I quickly started looting it. I was afraid our squad wouldn't have enough room considering our losses, but I realized the other squad was still following us, and had plenty of room. The magical packs could swallow many huge claws, and plenty of extra stars. Daggers were taken by the dozen. We soon had most of the weapons in our nearly bursting packs.

I came to the door again. I listened, and then heard an explosion. I heard voices.

"Finally. That steel wall was like 5 feet thick." Someone said. I realized they must have been blasting their way into the storage unit. Why the hell did they have to blast through just now? At this very moment? Did I do something bad today?

"What is this place?" Suddenly I heard heavy foot steps. A warrior. Deep armor. Bad for thieves. I heard him trying to open to door.

"It's wood. Just kick it down." Another voice said. I quickly drew my arm up and stabbed through the wood. I hit something, and I rammed the door with my right shoulder, bring it down and pinning the warrior down. Az teleported out and used a thunder spear to get rid of the other one. I used a powerful electric shock to dispatch the enemy below the door.

I quickly got up, and saw a third warrior run in. Magical arrows killed him instantly. "Move!" I shouted. We quickly bolted for the door that lead out. We jumped down the stairs, skipping 3 steps at a time. We came to the bottom and I quickly opened the door. The way out was easier then the way in. I opened the final door leading into the subway, and was greeted by a very, very, very unpleasant sight.

5 different four job soldiers stood outside. 2 heroes, a dark knight, a bow master, and a paladin stood there.

The thieves all jumped out of the way as a barrage of arrows struck the doorway. Fourth job soldiers were still very difficult for me. The bow master before wasn't paying attention. I wouldn't get any easy kills with 5 different fourth job soldiers. The thieves stood in various areas, cowering. I stayed close enough to Az. The bow master aimed at us next. I jumped out of the area, the stream of arrows following me. I threw some stars, forcing him to stop in order to dodge. He started to fire again, and I threw more stars to give myself a moment. This time a hero stood up and put his shield up to block it, letting the archer continue to fire. I ducked behind some rubble, and heard a spear stabbing through someone. Suddenly fire rained from above, an inferno. I charged up some arrows and jumped again, sending arrows flying at the enemy. Most were dodged or ignored. A thunder spear hit the archer, and stars came from all directions. The warriors put shields around the archer, but a star slipped past and hit him in the chest. He started to bleed quickly. I fired more arrows, one striking the neck of the archer. He fell bleeding. The cramped subway was a difficult place to fight.

Stars came at the remaining warriors from all directions. Most bounced off the heavy armor, some caught them in the remaining spaces. A hero holding a two handed sword went after me. I let him come, and he slashed upwards with incredible speed, I barely dodged. He spun and the sword fell the next instant. I raised my dagger to block, but his sword was sharp as well, although not on the same level. But it was enough, it wouldn't take too much damage from impacting against mine. My arm couldn't take the weight, and my dagger gave way to the sword, letting it slash across my chest. I coughed up a bit of blood, I knew I couldn't win with weapons alone. Then I heard a sound, a faint tune. That song again. What was it? I was aware that the hero had charged up energy from the blood I had spilled. It circled around him, like blue orbs.

I wasted no time. The song was clearer then ever. I stabbed forward quickly. He raised his sword, but I glowed yellow, letting a rush of speed come over me as I passed him twice, giving him deep cuts. His armor was no match for my dagger. He tried to use the double slash again, I think it was called brandish, but the first attack was seen and known long before he used it. I let it pass, and cut his throat while his arms were not protecting it. He fell over, easier then I had expected. He was not a very high level fourth job hero, he didn't even have rush. I was hoping this would be true for the other fourth job soldiers.

Suddenly, I felt a sword stab through my middle. The paladin. His blade was burning hot, it burned as it pierced me. I jumped back, bleeding quickly. I sent off a series of arrows, which he easily blocked. He suddenly rushed at me again with incredible speed, but I managed to use an assaulter. My wound wasn't getting much better. I barely ducked to avoid a heavy horizontal slash, but managed to trip him with a kick. His heavy armor smashed into the ground, and a quick shock kept him down long enough for me to stab his heart.

I felt my wound in my stomach. I used mana to try and close it, but I could not heal the internal damage. Az was fighting the one handed sword hero. She teleported around the warrior, using thunder spears and arrows as she could, her arrows pinning him down, and the chief bandit girl managed to kill him with an assaulter.

The dark knight had killed three of our thieves, and had not been able to hurt any of the others, thanks to flash jump's speed. He couldn't catch up with them, and in his frustration he let loose an incredible roar, I felt mana blasting in all directions. It would be damaging to be any closer, and all the thieves around him took some damage, clutching thier chests in pain. However, the already weakened dark knight took the most damage, and a few stars caught him off guard, killing him as well.

I grabbed the packs from the dead and threw them to the rest. We followed the tunnels and got out at the swamps. I couldn't jump at all anymore, I could barely use my legs to walk. I doubled over as it got worse. Az looked at me in concern.

"I'm done." I said. "I'm at my limit, I'll die if I move much further." I said.

Az came over and started to carry me, but I couldn't think anymore. I couldn't feel anything. Blackness spread into my eyesight.

* * *

Oh no! Our main hero is in trouble. About other blades and thier resistance to getting cut apart by the sapphire moon cross, part of it will be explained later. I will tell you right now though, that even though the sapphire moon is the sharpest in the world, there are other blades that come quite close to it's power when imbued with magical abilities. (scrolls, for anyone that actually plays the game). This means that right now, Ice can pretty much cut apart weaker weapons, but once you start getting to the kinds of weapons worthy of the fourth job characters, he starts to run into problems. Considering that most swords have more momentum then Ice's strength can stop, it means Ice isn't the overpowered amazing superman some of you might make him out to be.

This chapter was rushed a bit more then I wanted it to be. I'm sorry, but there has been a lot of work from school, and not enough time. I don't think I like the 5 4th job enemies at once fight, simply saying that they are newer fourth jobbers so that they would be easier to defeat wasn't the best idea. Well, they were easier to defeat, but as you saw, just 2 of them were able to nearly kill Ice. They don't even have weapons on the same level as him. Maybe that strange song that keeps showing up will help him...

As for the next chapter, review. It'll help. Alot.


	7. Hospital visit 2

Hi. I know it's been a while since I updated. This is because I was involved in a car crash, and was in the hospital for a while. I'm back now, but it doesn't mean I'll be updating very fast. I have a LOT of work to make up in school. But I can't forget the few people that do read my story, so I'm uploading this chapter, which was mostly finished before I was injured.

Enjoy.

* * *

I woke up, scared and sweating, but the sudden action only gave made me dizzy. I looked around. I was back in the hospital, but I was in a bigger room. There was plenty of space between the beds, unlike before. There was a strange machine next to me, somehow sensing me without touching me. The whiteness of the room was lost, dirt and some traces of blood stained the floors, though some people were scrubbing it frantically. I looked over at the far end of the room, where there was a door, and a team of clerics surrounding a single bed. Fixing a complex organ, I guessed. I looked down at my own wound, there was still a scar. I looked over to see Jess on the next bed.

"You okay?" She asked. "You've been out for a day."

"Still feel kind of light-headed." I responded. I tried using my mana to form an ice shard to press against my head, but I couldn't concentrate, I was just too dizzy. Waves of pain came through my eyes, pulsing as if the light of the room was hurting me. I pressed my hand against my forehead, trying to suppress the pain.

"Oh, your awake. One second." A cleric teleported over to me, laid me down and looked at my stomach. She put a hand on my head, and a green light came out from her hands, making a tingly, warming sensation wash away some of the pain.

"Where did Az and the others go?" I asked, sitting up. I felt a shot of pain on my stomach, as if I had been stabbed again, and laid back down. I wondered just how much damage I must have taken.

"Don't bother. You'll find out about your friends later. For now, the brief healing isn't enough, it takes a lot of energy to heal organs, and that includes your energy. You are feeling mana loss. Your body is using it's energy to heal you, not to produce mana, meaning you'll be dizzy and defenseless for a few more hours." The cleric said. I didn't care, I just wanted this stupid dizzy feeling to go away.

I looked over a man who had his leg amputated, or maybe chopped off earlier. The non-clerical workers tried to clean up frantically. People groaned in pain from what felt like all directions. A man was brought in and laid on the bed opposite of me. He had heavy wounds and was bleeding quickly, his face scrunched up in pain. He was weeping and crying the name of some women, he was probably delusional. A few clerics started sealing up the wound. The white bed sheets quickly turned red, he howled in pain, it was sickening to watch. They healed his inner wounds first, and then worked on the outer. Drugs were already knocking him out. His weeps died down. I tried to ignore all of it.

"Horrible." I said. "I'm glad I blacked out before I came in here."

"I'm glad I'm not up in the front line like your girlfriend was." The cleric said as she teleporting from one bed to the next, checking the equipment of each person. I blushed at that comment. Jess was just a friend, I didn't feel anything to her.

"I can't imagine how much worse it must be on the other side. Without clerics, they must be having amputations and deaths every few seconds." I grimaced. Jess nodded.

I suddenly saw the door open.

"Finally awake, sleeping beauty?" I heard. Jack walked over, with Mike and Az following.

"Shut up Mr. suicide bomber." I retorted. Jack's grin didn't fade. I wanted to punch it, but that would hurt me more right now.

"How are you?" Az asked, nudging Jack out of the way.

"Dizzy." I said. It was getting better, the pulses were not as bad as before.

"I was in here for a while as well." Az said. "Got a few arrows in my arm, and one in my shoulder." She lifted part of her sleeve, pointing out where.

"What happened to you Jess? I just saw you getting moved away on a stretcher." Mike asked, hopping across my bed. The motion brought back the waves of pain. I silently cursed.

"One of those stupid spears got me when I ducked under an arrow bomb." Jess said, rolling her eyes. Spears? I started wondering what the front line really looked like.

"Does it hurt?" Mike asked.

"I was out until they fixed it. I think Ice was as well." Jess said.

"Good. I've heard some terrible stories..." Mike said.

"What about you?" Jack asked.

"Got burned by a paladin. The heros may have a more effective attack, but the paladins have a lot of versatile powers." I said.

"They get control over all elements, right?" Jack said.

"Not all of them, but most of them. It's pretty popular right now for a paladin to have one favorite element, developing new techniques. They are the mages of Perion and Henesys." Az said. I heard a whine, and I looked over at the screen that showed my pulse, or something. Who knew what these machines could do?

"I think you would feel it if your heart stopped." Mike smirked. I rolled my eyes and looked over at another bed, where a few clerics were attempting to revive a women.

"So what's new?" I said.

"They rationed food. It's not as much as I would like, but I can live on it." Mike said.

"What's the front line like?" I asked.

"It's insane. I'll just list what everyone does, and you can sort of fit them together. Shadowers are mostly delivering supplies, and they've started learning from hermits how to use flash jump to make that job easier. We're also firing these ballista things, they're like these giant crossbows. Slow, but add a few mages and each shot is explosive or has some other effect. The Nightlords are just throwing stars, but some of them are piercing through armor. The mages are using whatever long range magic they have. They have ultimate attacks, but they are not long ranged enough to reach the archers. The ice mages keep having to put out fires on the tree branches caused by enemy fire arrows. The clerics are just healing whenever we get a chance. Everyone takes cover behind trees or on the branches, and some platforms of wood or ice have been made to help out." Mike listed, counting his fingers for each type of mage and thief.

"Wow. What about the enemies?"

"The enemy warriors can't do much. They tried rushing at us the first day, big mistake. They got in range of the mage ultimates and where crushed. The 3rd job or lower warriors have been reduced to throwing spears. The bowmasters are keeping us from charging them, they're firing arrows like crazy, even an individual bowmaster can fire really fast. They're also using some fire arrow skill to set the trees on fire. The marksman are blowing huge holes through whatever we hide behind with pierce or snipe." Mike said.

"Something scary happened to me." Jack said.

"Wouldn't take much to scare you." I said, getting a cold glare from Jack.

"No, really. I dodged a strafe, used by a marksman, I saw him firing it. But the scary thing was that there were 6 arrows, not 4. I think they are getting stronger, developing better techniques, like we are."

"That is scary. I wonder if the warriors are secretly training with new techniques." I said.

"The warriors aren't really any concern. Arrows, magic, and stars, those are the things that kill. Close ranged weapons are not enough for the front line." Jess said. "Many have learned this the hard way."

"By the way, what ever happened to the other thieves? The dual bladers? They were in some secret society in Kerning city, we've even fought a few." I said.

"I don't know either. The council was going to accept them as a new breed of thieves, but before they could get it set in stone, Kerning was attacked. I'm not sure what happened to them, but I see a few of them in the front lines, so I assume they either got away with us, or by some other route." Jess said.

"Visiting time is over. Get out." A man called. He trudged into the next room.

"See you later, Ice..." Az said, walking off. She took a look at me before leaving the room. Mike was already gone. I decided to go to sleep, my pain was gone and I could finally concentrate on getting some rest. I thought a bit about what was going to happen. My thoughts started heading over to the topic of my friends. They hadn't been changed that much from the war, or maybe they were trying to hide thier real thoughts. Jack didn't seem to make as much noise as he used to, but that was a relative figure. My thoughts wandered to Az and Jess. Jess was nice, but Az was...something else. I didn't know how to describe it. I decided that I'd better stop thinking, for soon, it wouldn't be smart to do so. Regret was a dangerous thing in war.

* * *

I felt someone trying to wake me up again. I grabbed the attacker's arm.

"One cup of coffee. Then we talk." I said. I let the attacker go. Suddenly I felt a cold air blast, and I hung onto my bed. My cover flipped off, and I looked up to see Az.

"You are the most stubborn sleeper I've ever seen." Az said.

"I've lived in the shadows for half of my life. I'm nocturnal, you can't change that." I countered.

"I'll keep that in mind." Az said, a ghost of a smile coming to the corner of her lips. I realized I would be in for a lot of air blasts in the coming days.

"So what now?" I asked. Jess was already gone, as usual. She always woke up early.

"We're waiting for more people to get put into our squad. Then we're probably getting sent to the front line." Az said. I let out a moan.

"As such, I've prepared a few techniques for you." Az asked. I nodded, getting out of bed. The cut in my stomach was gone, and I followed Az out.

We walked out of the hospital, onto the green branches and bridges that were now my home. We walked over to the center of Ellinia, and I looked over the circle of branches. People seemed to walk in groups of 5 or more, armed with weapons at all times.

"It's different from before." I sighed. I wondered briefly what it would look like if Ellinia had been attacked, and the mages had been forced into Kerning City. Mages teleporting between buildings, in offices hiding and watching the roads that lead to Perion and Henesys.

I shook that thought from my head. Az jumped down, and I groaned, reluctantly jumping down after her. Falling for a few seconds, before getting bounced by mana guards and towards a wire net. Az got up in time, and I landed behind her, bouncing once on the net and landing on my feet.

I got off, dusted my jeans off, even though there was little dust to be had there. I got off the net and back on the tree branches. I still didn't enjoy jumping, it was never going to be my favorite thing. We walked into the training hall. I saw Ruby waiting on one of the couches, eating a salad at one of the tables. she quickly scooped up a few of the last pieces and threw the plate in the recycling bin.

"Ah, thanks for bringing him here Az. I wanted to show him a technique I developed, since you have a sapphire moon cross, it would be really helpful for you." Ruby said.

"Show me then." I said.

"I know you are an ice-user, but this wind technique I came up with is just too good." Ruby said. She teleported over to the fighting area, beckoning me to followed. I used a shadow step to catch up.

She held my arm, below the wrist, and I let her mana interact with mine. I felt the mana forming in my dagger, replicating the sharpness. Multiple layers formed at a very fast pace, black and glowing blue, and then she brought my arm up and swung it down. The layers slid off, and she made my mana form a large spinning gale. The layers of replicated blades spun on it, forming a wind tunnel of dark and blue cutting mana, which tore up a wall. The wall regenerated, part of the training hall features.

"You understand what I did?" Ruby said.

"Yeah, replicate my blade with mana layers as best I can, then use a gust to make them move. Does it have to spin like that?" I asked.

"Well, you could, but I figured you wouldn't like that. It'd be just like shuriken. Then again, it might be possible if you make the layers stronger or explosive." Ruby started muttering mathmatical equations and formulas. "Anyway, the spinning wind makes it very difficult to block, and lets you spread it out to attack more enemies."

"Ah, I see. Jess would be much better with this, she's a wind magic pro." I said. "What's it called?" I asked.

"Shadow storm." Ruby said.

"I'll keep that in mind." I said. I tried forming the mana again, but it wasn't as easy as it looked, or rather, felt. Making my mana sharp while still keeping it strong and in place was hard enough, multiple layers was tougher. I swung and sent my mana into a swirl, pushing air the best I could. It didn't spin that fast, and the blades lost sharpness quickly. So much for quick learning.

I tried again, and again. It was improving, but slowly. Ruby demonstrated again, and I did exactly as she had, but it still didn't seem as effective as hers.

"I guess it'll grow on me." I said, finally. I took out a potion and drank the blue liquid, letting my mana slowly recover.

"Well, you already have the benefit of mana overshadowing." Ruby said.

"Mana overshadowing?" I asked.

"It's what I used to demonstrate it. It's an old technique, but it's outdated. It was meant to take over enemies, but it didn't really work unless the subject wanted to be taken over. We've found a practical use for it, though." Ruby said.

"How's it going?" Az said, walking up.

"Okay-ish. By the way, didn't your squad get pretty much wiped out?" Ruby asked.

"We have like 3 survivors other then us." I said.

"Well, you guys are being considered for elites." Ruby said.

"Elites?" I asked. "What that?"

"They added a new rank, or rather, an old one. In the old days, they would give a special cape to those who were the best of their class. It's made of a special yarn, very expensive stuff, and it's apparently extremely resistant to damage. I heard it works like chain mail, except lighter and quieter, and warmer." Ruby said.

"So just a cape?" I said.

"Well, there are 2 different colors. I think white was the weaker one, and…" Ruby said, trying to remember.

"Black." Az finished.

"Yes, black, is the stronger one. The cape can have any pattern you want, and the better of an elite you become, the more black fabric they will weave in for you. They can add more at anytime, but it's expensive, and you need to be really strong to get a decent amount of black on your cape." Ruby said.

"Are they doing that in Perion and Henesys?" I asked.

"I don't know, probably." Ruby said. "You want to go ask them?"

"I guess we'll find out soon anyway." I said.

"Elites apparently get a lot of special treatment. They want to keep elite alive, so they often give them better weapons and stuff." Az said.

"Interesting." I said. "Too bad they couldn't give me any better weapon."

"I think you two are lacking some raw power, though. You'll have to prove yourself before you ever become elites." Ruby said.

"I guess so." I said, looking down at my dagger. I sealed it back into the normal piece of jewelry.

"Ice!" I heard. I turned around to see Mike waving. He flash jumped over. That was a handy technique, I'd need to learn it. "Our squads have been combined. We're going back up to the front line tomorrow." Mike said.

"Ugh..." Az groaned. She didn't appear happy about it.

"Well, Ice, we're going to need to work overtime if you want to learn how to use shadow storm and ice shields by tomorrow." Rose said.

"This is going to be a long day." I said. Az smiled, confirming my statement.

* * *

Well, hope you enjoyed this chapter. I'm not sure how I feel about the chapter, I think it's okay. I think there are some mistakes, I rushed it because of how long it has taken for me to update.

As for the story, Ice is going to have a scientific view on magic. Please review, tell me what you want, what you like, what you hate, and what mistakes I've made. Feel free to point out the smallest of mistakes, that way I can fix them.


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